Rainy Days in West Virginia

West Virginia is a beautiful place and I love to go there, but last week was really, really, wet. In spite of that, I had a great time and managed a couple of decent shots in spite of the pouring rain.

Stayed at the Glen Ferris Inn, again, so it was hard not to stop by Cathedral Falls, which is right down the U.S. 60 (Midland Trail) in Gauley Bridge. This is one of my favorite falls. It’s a really cool location and it was really running well this day, and I got a break from the rain to shoot here.

We also visited Fayette Station, Babcock State Park, Sandstone Falls, and Thurmond. I took a few side trips to some other places that I like, but the water was so high and fast that it was impossible to venture into some of these places. I heard that there was 8″ of rain in North Carolina the couple days before, thus all the high and rapid water on the New River. For those who don’t know, the New River originates in North Carolina and flows north into W. Virginia. I’m not sure how much control the dams have over the flow, but it was right at flood stage everywhere in the bottoms.

Babcock State Park

Sandstone Falls

At Thurmond RR Station

Unnamed falls on the road to Thurmond

It’s hard to describe how loud and violent the water was last week. You would have had to have been there to see it to get an idea. It seemed like everywhere I drove, there were “volunteer” waterfalls that just popped up on the side of the road. More than I could count or photograph. A lot of them were quite picturesque, but almost impossible to shoot, with traffic and all. But I did do some snaps from the truck, and you can tell which ones they are because they don’t have the “silky” effect, like most of my waterfall shots. See the rest in my gallery.